Thank you Mr. Speaker. Could the Minister indicate then where the definition of wellness being a state of being that we hope to achieve, that is difficult to measure fits into the, into that definition. Thank you.

Thank you Mr. Speaker. Given that the Minister just basically repeated the initial part of his definition without really addressing the issue and what it is to achieve a state of being at that level, and one will note, how do we know when we have achieved that state of being in the community? Could the Minister indicate, given the money that we are spending for community wellness plans, do you anticipate some sort of success at the end of the day? I notice you indicate here you are going to have a campaign that will include public service announcements that describe community wellness successes, and these will air shortly on CBC television. Given the sort of confusion over the community wellness, or the lack of clarity, I am assuming this community TV announcements will be sort of a mini-series that maybe the minister could tell us what he anticipates at the end of the day with all of this money. Thank you.

Point of Clarification, Mr. Speaker.

Mr. Speaker, I will repeat the question.

Clearly I would like to indicate, as well, to the House that my comment about community wellness being a state of being that we hope to achieve is not something that I just pulled out and I am asking for a personal opinion as Minster. But that was written clearly in a document provided to the Social Programs Committee as a definition of what constitutes community wellness.

And I was just trying to get clarification from the Minister, exactly what that means as it is difficult to measure, yet we are spending 2.7-million dollars...

I am sorry Mr. Speaker, I am having a rough go of this one.

The question of community wellness being a state of being, I am assuming that is something that is within the Minister's responsibilities since he wrote it. He wrote the definition and so could the Minister indicate to the House how we are going to measure this community wellness we are spending millions of dollars on, in terms of the plans that are supposed to come out at the end of the day?

Thank you Mr. Speaker. So in effect we are asking communities, we are funding communities to provide community wellness plans that we have yet to develop the criteria for to measure. Is that correct?

Thank you Mr. Speaker. When the quota for those particular communities were reduced because of the harsh impact that we thought it would have on the communities, we set up a compensation package to offset the impact of the reduction. Later when the quota was increased we then ceased the compensation package and converted it to community assistance package.

What has been happening now is, we know that the quota for polar bears is going to vary because we have yet to have a comprehensive management plan. The polar bears that are harvested in that area are international citizens, that is, they go across the ice to the west side of Greenland and so, they are harvested, as well, by the people of Greenland, the Greenlanders, and so, we have yet to reach agreement on a management plan at the international level.

So, until then we know that there is going to be some instability and inability to have a more stable long range management plan and ability to set a stable quota. So, having said that the quotas will change probably from year to year. In the meantime, the money that we had set aside to help the community has stopped. It does not exist any more since last winter. Since March 31st,1996. We are presently having discussion with the community to see how we can make best use of existing resources.

For instance, should we have those monies made available to other economic initiatives in the renewable resource sector or other sectors of the community of other sectors that the community may wish to expand on other than compensating just the polar bear hunters for the reduction in the quota? So, at this time the money has lapsed, as of last winter, but we are currently looking at ways, in discussions with the community, on how we can set about assisting the community in view of the reduction. Thank you.